February 18, 2014

The Times They Are A-Changin'

The internet is business. What I mean to say is, business processes are increasingly starting on, and being triggered on, the web. So when it comes to an online presence, businesses can’t afford to miss out on a customized, fully integrated set of solutions particular to their unique digital strategy. We know that these needs evolve over time, and rarely ever begin with a clean slate. But no business should settle for less than a perfect fit with a one-size-fits-all solution. That’s why integrations are so crucial.

Rather than accepting a pre-packaged solution they cannot customize, integrations allow businesses to select the exact elements they want working together in their digital environment. By integrating best of breed solutions, businesses can anticipate future needs—adding features as necessary, while also safely and conveniently migrating without compromising their existing infrastructure. The option to integrate allows them the space to grow and innovate at their own pace, in the directions they want.

Putting the Customer First

In a recent article on CMSWire, Scott Brinker discusses his most recent Marketing Technology Landscape Infographic. It’s enormous—to put it mildly, and has absolutely exploded in the past few years. The first version of the landscape, made in 2011, only featured around 100 companies. By 2012, that rose to over 350. This January, there were over 950 companies, and that’s just an overview! The digital space is expanding at lightning speed, and business’ digital needs alongside. Hardly any players can check all the boxes, let alone guarantee that they’ll satisfy all future needs. Rather than limiting their options with full marketing suites, enterprises should go for the best in every field, selecting those products willing to integrate and work together to provide them with an all-star tailored solution. At Hippo, we believe that the best way to serve our customers is to be the best in the CMS space, and work well with the other products our customers are using.

Content is King

As Scott rightfully notes, before the landscape of marketing technology expanded to its current formidable size, CMS was there first. And even with the rapid development occurring within the space, it remains the backbone of marketing technology solutions. Content is everywhere—and it’s only getting more important to all facets of digital marketing.

The central importance of content in any solution, on any platform has been Hippo’s philosophy from the very start. We’ve always been firm believers in the separation of concerns, enabling CMS users to edit their content centrally for all platforms, regardless of what elements their marketing solution is comprised of.

All roads lead to the Content

When it comes to the expansive landscape of marketing technology, all roads lead back to the website—and hence content. Or, conversely--- content can be the starting point for various paths. Because Hippo CMS emphasizes ease of integration, making it easy for customers to curate the elements in their individual marketing ‘arsenal,’ there’s no risk of vendor lock-in, and new technologies can be added over time. With Hippo, customers can tinker with whatever integrations they choose, allowing them to remain masters of their own marketing technology journey. Below are just some of the integrations possible with Hippo:

Mobile

Mobile is no longer just an option for organizations, businesses and publications—it’s a must. In fact, given the skyrocketing popularity of handheld devices in the past few years, the industry’s focus on digital presence is in many ways moving towards mobile-first. How businesses choose to make their content available on mobile—whether it’s through a native app or responsive design in HTML5, should depend on their particular needs. Hippo’s REST API leaves the choice with individual customers, allowing for native, responsive HTML5, as well as integrations with native app providers, hybrid solutions or mobile commerce.

eCommerce

Time and again, we see eCommerce providers building their own systems --like e.g. amazon. But the demands for online shopping experiences have raised the ante for eCommerce. As eCommerce moves from online buying to online shopping, 9 images with a price tag just don’t cut it anymore. On their own, eCommerce systems are not built to accommodate these new expectations. It’s here that content (and Hippo CMS) come in—allowing for a experience driven commerce. Providing a personalized content based customer journey to increase conversion, improve SEO and enrich the brand experience.

Marketing Automation

Marketing is not just about writing content—it’s about generating revenue for sales. SiriusDecisions reports that 70% of the buying process in a complex sale is already complete before prospects are willing to engage with a live salesperson. A CEB study pegs the figure slightly lower, at nearly 60%. Content can be a powerful tool leveraged to nurture leads and convert online visitors into clients.

Translations

Nelson Mandela famously said, “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.” Thanks to eCommerce and the raise of digital marketing, businesses are rarely limited to one region. Even the smallest of startups can have a global audience. Multilingual pages are no longer just a nice perk—they’re a necessity. Hippo CMS works well with translation software, helping translators remain consistent

ECM

Businesses increasingly understand that their website is more than just another resource providing information about them—it’s their calling card in the online environment, their primary “face” the outside world. To maintain credibility, it’s imperative that all key information be consistent and up to date, across all channels. This is especially important when so many businesses process are now beginning online. Often, these processes involve several editors in a workflow, and perhaps a legal team. Integration of a CMS with a document management system or other collaboration platform avoids the inconvenience and potential risks of manual input, and provides seamless multichannel publication.

Collaboration and portals

Enterprise portals and collaboration software are often embedded in organizations (intranets) or accessible through the web behind a login (extranet) to work together on projects. Groups have access to all needed business applications and content to be able to work in a single platform to get the job done. Due to its open architecture, Hippo CMS seamlessly integrates into all relevant enterprise portals.

Personalization

With Hippo CMS you coordinate your messages across all of your digital channels – and optimize them to create the engaging, relevant and contextual experiences your audience wants. To improve the customer journey, companies often integrate information from different data source like a CRM or social identity provider to engage which there customers on a higher level. This single view on the customer is used in Hippo CMS to optimize the customer journey in all channels. Above are some categories in which Hippo is actively expanding its technology landscape. Obviously this is not the complete picture. DAM, BI, ERP, Social, Email Service Providers, SEO tools, user management, etc. are all on our radar. We already have some integration in these fields. Most importantly, it’s important to remember that this space will evolve over time. We want to provide the flexibility to innovate by working together and providing an open platform to content and personalization.

Open Standards Breed Innovation

At Hippo, open standards and open source are part of our DNA. We believe in giving customers the space to integrate our solution in their infrastructure. Open integrations enable businesses to employ the precise tools needed for their business strategy—and avoid anything superfluous. Keeping the best products they love, with the option to add any of the many emerging marketing technologies when the time is right allows businesses to respond to changing circumstances, keep their edge and remain agile.

Open Source Makes Integrations Powerful

Open source products are built with interoperability and integration in mind. That is why Hippo is a so much better team player for your eBusiness ecosystem. Hippo’s open integration capabilities enable you to move fast and scale effectively. Hippo’s standards-based architecture gives you the power to be open for integration, open for innovation, open for flexibility, open for high-impact content and open for success. Because solutions that play well together succeed together as well.

If you have any questions regarding our technology alliance program, contact us at partners@onehippo.com to discuss your solution or check our Technology Alliance program on becoming a technology partner.

About the author

Tjeerd Brenninkmeijer

CMO & Founder

Tjeerd Brenninkmeijer writes regularly for CMS related magazines, looks after strategic alliances and has extensive experience as an international speaker.